SHE'S BACK: Nora returns in sequel to Ibsen's classic 'Doll's House'

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Sunday

Dec 30, 2018 at 4:39 PM

When playwright Henrik Ibsen ended “A Doll’s House” with a woman walking out on her husband and three children, it was a radical move for 1879, leaving the audience shocked and unsure of what their futures would bring.

Some may have expected her to come back regretfully shortly after, but who would have expected her unapologetic return 15 years later? But return she does, with a knock on the door that opens the “A Doll’s House Part 2,” a Tony Award-nominated play by Lucas Hnath which runs at The Huntington Theatre January 4 – Feb. 3.

“I was surprised when I read the play,” said director Les Waters, who has won awards for shows directed Off-Broadway and around the country. “I didn’t think she would return as a successful novelist.”

But Nora Helmer is not just any novelist, and she isn’t returning to resume her marriage to her husband, Torvald, who raised their three children in her absence. She has written an anti-marriage story based on her own, and she comes back only to get Torvald to legalize their divorce. If he refuses, Nora faces imprisonment from a judge who wants vengeance because her book inspired his wife to leave him and who has the legal authority because Nora’ actions have been illegal for a married woman.

Waters, who directed the comic drama at the Berkley Repertory Theatre in California, said he wanted to direct the play because of the compelling issues Hnath explores and because the two are frequent collaborators. Waters also was intrigued that Hnath created characters for the servant, Anne Marie, and one of Nora’s children, Emmy. In the original play, Anne Marie was a background character who said little and Emmy was only two or three years old.

“It’s no longer just a story of Nora and her husband,” Waters said. “It’s what happened to this family when Nora left, and there’s a lot of things they need to say to each other.

While “A Doll’s House” is part of many high school and college literature courses, people do not need to be familiar with it to appreciate Part 2.

“If you know the original, there may be additional delight, but I don’t think it matters,” Waters said.

Over the course of the play, the characters make the case for their own views of marriage, the roles of men and women, the abandonment of children and the pursuit of individual fulfillment.

“The play is full of questions that are incredibly interesting and it’s an exciting debate by very articulate, passionate people,” he said.

The issue that sparks the most heated conversations is, not surprising, that Nora leaves her three children.

“What’s radical in the (original) play and what some people find very difficult is that not only does Nora walk out on her husband, she doesn’t take the kids with her,” Waters said. “There’s a fiery response to the issue of a woman walking out because she needs to be away from her family to feel like an authentic human being and not an assemblage of compromises. What if you really need something that causes damage to other people?”

When Nora first returns she seems brazenly unconcerned about the hurt she caused, but she, and the other characters, shift ground over the course of the play.

“As she’s confronted by her husband, her daughter and the maid, you see how she felt when she left and what a complex thing it was for her to make that decision and how she felt as she imagined her children growing up without her,” he said.

Despite the controversial issues, Hnath succeeds in giving each character a compelling argument, which makes the play a bit like a debate, made particularly engaging by its drama and humor.

“Everyone has a valid point of view,” Waters said. “I don’t think people can leave the play and dismiss someone as completely wrong. I hope that they think, ‘Oh, I agree with her’ and then, “Oh, I agree with him.’ I always find it interesting to listen to people talk afterwards about which characters they side with.”

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” premiered at the South Coast Repertory in California in 2016 and ran on Broadway for six months in 2017, starring Chris Cooper, of Kingston, as Torvald and Laurie Metcalf as Nora, and winning eight Tony-Award nominations. In the Huntington Theatre production, Mary Beth Fisher, who has received the LA Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Chicago’s Leading Lady Award and other awards, stars as Nora. John Judd, Torvald, has appeared Off-Broadway, in major regional theaters throughout the country and on television. Nancy E. Carroll, Anne Marie, is an Elliot Norton Award Winner who has appeared on Broadway and in regional theaters throughout the country, and Nikki Massoud, Emmy, has many regional and television credits.

Reach Jody Feinberg at patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JFeinberg_Ledger.